#NFLTechSeries 2013: Dallas Cowboys

Our 2013 NFL Tech Series provides a full series of insight tech reviews covering all 32 NFL teams, giving fans a daily hit of gridiron progress to excite right up until kickoff of Week 1. Each feature includes the latest tech advances implemented by the organization in the effort to advance the team’s success, in a wide variety of venues. Stadium experience, fan engagement, mobile technologies, player performance and health, statistical data gathering and analysis: any and all aspects of the organization’s procedures in the effort to find success in the NFL is on the table. We’re uncovering those efforts, investigating those innovations and pondering the benefits provided for the team, players and fans alike… today and looking forward.

Today’s subject: the Dallas Cowboys, America’s Team by traditional standards and certainly America’s Team by today’s NFL financial expectations. Few are as dedicated to the pursuit of excellence when it comes to spending, and as any Dallas fan will attest, that spending doesn’t end in the pursuit of new technologies.

(Greg Nelson/SI)

We begin where owner Jerry Jones probably begins when he hosts friends at his house: the scoreboard. When the stadium opened to grand applause in 2009, many were quick to praise two massive innovations housed in the home of Jerry: the world’s largest single-span retractable roof, and the scoreboard rated by the Guinness World Records as the largest high-definition display in the world at the time (Texans have since installed a larger video board).

Sitting 90 feet above the field, are four large HD screens sits. Two of those screens face the end zones and the others facing the 50-yard line (and then some). Those facing the ends are smaller in size, measuring 29 feet high by 51 feet wide. The larger screens: 72 feet high and 160 feet long. This totals 25,000 square feet of HD display, setting Jerry and Company back $40 million.

The most impressive aspect of the display might be the coverage of stadium setting. Jones once claimed the experience of watching this screen, no matter your location in the stadium, is better than viewing a 60-inch display from your couch. While home TV sets rely on one of two technologies for display – LCD or plasma screens – the Cowboys set leverages LED (replacing pixels with multi-colored bulbs) to replicate HD-quality presentation. These screens carry 30 million total LEDs with density producing 1080p resolution.

Recent headlines point to deals signed and events to follow as a sign of Dallas’ hold on the NFL’s leadership role in tech. Begin with the partnership with AT&T, giving the telcom giant naming rights on the stadium while the fans in the Big D get (a) one of the most powerful mobile experiences available while there, and (b) new event commits with one of the biggest sponsors in sports. AT&T has doubled the capacity of their 4G LTE network inside the stadium (as well as parking lots and plazas surrounding the grounds), they have doubled the stadium’s wifi capacity as well, and as a kicker, they also sponsored a full renovation of the Cowboys’ mobile app to include maps and wayfinding at the stadium.

However, the true highlight of the agreement may be the list of events AT&T Stadium will now host in 2014. This list includes the Cotton Bowl, NCAA Men’s Final Four, and the first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship Game in 2015. Add in the list of soccer matches, action sport events, concerts and other events the corporation sponsors and the stadium will see an average of 30 events a year.

The Cowboys have also found a partner in NBC Sports, scheduling the network’s first use of the new 360-degree FreeD telecast during the Sunday Night Football opener against the New York Giants. 24 high-speed cameras will be utilized at AT&T Stadium to record and distribute the game. Not only will the broadcast be enhanced, but the system is designed to specifically provide 360-degree analysis of plays in the red zone for official reviews.

Those deals put the Cowboys well ahead of the NFL pack in the race to innovate, on behalf of fans, the team and the bottom line.

“The San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets and New York Knicks, plus four other teams that have chosen to keep their identity secret, have invested in these complex GPS tracking devices created by the Australian company Catapult Sports, the self-professed leader in athlete analytics. The device, called OptimEye, is roughly the size of an oldfangled beeper and athletes wear it inside their jerseys on the upper back between the shoulder blades. The device records literally every movement the player makes, accurately measuring exertions such as distance, velocity, changes in direction, acceleration, deceleration, jumps, heart rate and more.”

The goal is simple: let’s add some form of relative data to what have been subjective beliefs towards player exertion, behavior and health. We make the tie to the Cowboys thanks, once again, to Caplan:

“The NBA is just the latest pro sports league to jump headfirst into this new technology. Catapult has more than 300 clients worldwide, including the NFL’s New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons, Jacksonville Jaguars, St. Louis Rams and Buffalo Bills, plus half the English Premiere League and most of Australian Rules Football.”

Add all of this and much more and any objective analysis will agree… the Cowboys are among the elite in progressing tech forward on behalf of their business, their staff and their league, and we look forward to the reports we’ll find when preview time comes around next year.